Romanian Church may recognize OCU in exchange for opening its parishes in Ukraine, - religious scholar

Serhiy Shumylo, director of the International Institute of Athos Heritage, religious scholar and lobbyist for the OCU, said that the Romanian Orthodox Church may agree to recognize the OCU if Ukraine allows the Romanian Orthodox Church of Ukraine to be established, which will include Romanian-speaking Orthodox parishes in the country. He said this in an interview with Radio Liberty.

“The Romanian Church, which has so far stayed away, has a generally independent position. There is no influence of Moscow there, they have their own vision, they are really waiting. The Romanian Church wants to open its church in Ukraine. And this also creates certain challenges, because, on the one hand, a democratic state governed by the rule of law cannot deny the right of any religious organizations to exist in Ukraine, unless they are associated with the aggressor state and support the war against Ukraine. On the other hand, the emergence of this third purely national jurisdiction may cause some new disputes and conflicts, particularly in the border regions. That is why these are additional challenges. And, perhaps, the Romanian Church can set a condition, for example, of a kind of bargaining that we, for example, can agree to recognize the OCU, but in return we want to have our own church in Ukraine for Romanian-speaking parishes, for example. And there are a lot of them, in particular in the Chernivtsi region, there are more than 100 parishes. There are also some in Zakarpattia and Odesa region,” – Shumylo said.

As reported, on October 21-23, 2024, the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelensky, visited Romania. During the visit, Yelensky visited the Romanian government and the Romanian Patriarchate, where he held a series of meetings on establishing relations between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the OCU.